Illustrative image. (Photo: VNA)Kien Giang (VNA) – The southern coastal province of Kien Giang has announced a list of eight vessels and their owners, which engaged in illegal fishing in foreign waters from the beginning of 2018 to date.
Quang Trong Thao, Vice Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the list was announced among local communities and published in local media.
According to him, the violators are from the districts of Chau Thanh, Kien Hai and Phu Quoc, and Rach Gia City. They were detained in Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia.
The list will be updated on the 25th day of every new month.
The move is part of Kien Giang’s efforts in implementing the Government’s Direction No.45 on actions in response to the EC’s yellow-card warning over illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, which was issued for Vietnam on October 23 last year.
Chairman of the Kien Giang People’s Committee Pham Vu Hong has directed relevant agencies to inspect needed papers, fishing instrument, and safety equipment of all vessels before sailing, while checking fishing diaries of all vessels arriving at local ports.
The province will not give permission to build new ships or carry out fishing activities for owners of ships which are caught of illegal fishing for the second time. Violated ships are also excluded from Government’s support policy.
Captains of offshore fishing vessels must sign a commitment to say no to fishing on other countries’ waters. They also have to keep diary on their fishing activities at sea and install and keep tracking devices running around the clock.
To address IUU fishing activities, the EC evaluates seafood exporting countries, and those which fail to meet the EC’s standards are issued a warning ("yellow card"), followed by a "green card" if issues are resolved or a "red card" if they aren’t. A red card can lead to a trade ban on fishery products.
According to EC’s requirement, the Vietnamese seafood sector had to implement nine recommendations in six months from October 23, 2017, to April 23, 2018.-VNA
VNA
